A software patch, as used herein, is software that is intended to change the functionality of and/or data stored on processing equipment by applying repairs, upgrades and the like to software, which, as used herein, refers to processor-executable instructions and data arranged by a programmer to implement such functionality. Managing software patch installations across numerous devices, particularly in widespread distributed configurations of diverse equipment, can be quite cumbersome. This is particularly true when certain operations must be performed at different devices prior to and during the installation of the patch and yet such operations are not supported in the devices as deployed. When such functionality is not available at a device, it may not be possible to install the patch without first replacing or patching the underlying patch framework. When numerous devices are implemented on many different computing platforms, the platform dependency of each patch framework of the devices can render wide distribution and installation of a simple patch into an enormously complex procedure.